Spaced out

Samir Mehra (name changed), country head of a leading MNC hospitality company, booked a spa-based residential apartment in Gurgaon and wants to shift from his farm house to this apartment as the ambience and facilities are far better compared to his farm house.

Raman Verma, head of a real estate consultancy firm, has bought a spa-based apartment with all his savings and bank loan. In fact, this is the only real estate investment that he has done so far. Now, he is getting offers to sell the house at double the price of what he bought. He, however, wants to retain it and once ready, wants to move in.

HOME is where the hearth is. Well, if that���s cliched for you, sample this: Home is where a spa is! Get up close and personal, the real estate industry is setting up newer standards for comfortable living and redefining the luxury quotient to pamper you silly.

Take that ��� your dream house is just getting better. Builders and developers are now throwing in a nerve-soothing spa too among the luxe facilities lined up in your apartment. And lured by the facilities, high-end customers, including top CEOs and expats, are showing keen interest in these apartments. As for prices, a high-end spa apartment can coolly make your wallet lighter by a whopping Rs 3-8 crore, depending on the size and facilities available.

What���s more, seeing a growth-oriented development, more and more developers are looking at this niche market and there are 12 to 15 projects planned in different cities which will be ready in next 18 to 24 months.Says Sanjay Chandra, MD, Unitech Group: ���Spa-based residential development in India is a relatively new and unique concept. One of the major positive impacts of globalisation with particular reference to the real estate sector is that India is increasingly aiming to match developments of an international standard.

Conventionally, spa developments have been fragmented ��� aimed at providing specific facilities. The major reason being these developments do not generate high levels of returns on investment in the initial phases but later they yield good returns. In fact, to enable reasonably good returns on investment, services in these facilities were charged at higher rates, with the consequent impact that these developments were usually patronised by the HNI segment of population that could afford these facilities.���

Adds Pradeep Jain, chairman, Parsvnath Developers: ���It is only now that in search of newer USPs, spa has become the focal point of high-end residential developments, rather than merely being an add-on feature. This is largely supported by the changing and increasingly stressed lifestyles of urban residents, particularly in the metros.

Consequently, while time for recreation and entertainment will always be at a premium, a workable solution is to maximise the benefits of recreation and entertainment in a shorter time. This is possible through developing an environment dedicated to this aspect of life at a scale that allows for curiosity, discovery, fun and high inter-personal interactions. These spa-based residential developments are seeking to do just tha t.���

Already, the Unitech group has two spa-based residential projects at hand in Gurgaon, while the Prestige group has under construction a mall having multi-facility cineplex, bowling alleys, health spa called Angsana Oasis Spa and resorts in the suburbs of Bangalore city. To be spread over 136 acres and 5 km from the proposed international airport at Nirvana in Devanahalli, it promises to be Asia���s most luxurious township.

As for marketing, initially developers were finding it difficult to market these kind of projects but now thing have changed dramatically. Even these kind of projects are being sold and bought by genuine buyers, and not by market speculators.

One of the key reasons for the growing attraction for spa-based apartments has been a selective marketing technique. This is in the form of direct mailers sent to select clientele as promotional material from the developer.

This aims is to work on the principle that addresses at pioneering and unique developments are being increasingly considered as the new paradigm of status symbols.Says Santhosh Kumar, CEO, Trammell Crow Meghraj: ���Marketing of these projects is quite different from the conventional form of marketing of residential projects, wherein developers, seeking to maximise initial returns, launch their projects and adopt mass marketing techniques. Marketing of these projects is largely target-segment oriented, and high networth individuals are the prime focus of these developments.���

Besides HNIs, the secondary target segment is the emerging nouveau-riche that would not mind spending a premium on a development that would complement their lifestyles and accord a status symbol. In fact, many feel that this kind of development is more likely to find favour in big cities in the coming years as India heads towards a higher order of economic growth.

Elaborates Atul Sharma, director, Genesis, an architect firm: ���It may be just a matter of time before these developments become the pre-requisite rather than the exception. The next stage in the evolution of spa developments is their integration with high-end hospitality developments.���